And Along came Eliza
and the children

In the Gazette of 8th June, 1832 Ben Halls is listed as an absconder from Radfordslea . As an absconder he could be arrested and sent back to Radfordslea or handed over to the local magistrates. He would have been liable for punishment by flogging and to have had six months added to his sentence.

There is no record of him being punished and the whole matter is a mystery as why should a man abscond who had little more than a month to go until his sentence would expire?. It is noteworthy that on August 31, 1832 he did receive his certificate of freedom.

It is related that when he obtained his certificate of freedom he was working as a stockman for Samuel Clift of Maitland a pastoralist and a butcher.

Possibly the explanation is that he may have been sent with cattle from Radfordslea to Maitland where they could have been sold and may have been delayed beyond the expected date for his return.

It does appear that as soon as he had his certificate of freedom he left Patrick Plains area whether because he was unable to obtain paid employment in the area or because he saw better opportunities elsewhere is not known.

It also appears that he had managed to get some money together while at Radfordslea and certainly was possessed of a good riding horse.

It seems that immediately after the end of August 1832 he set out over the Bulga trail (largely the route of the present Putty Road) to Windsor — though it is also possible he may have ridden to Wollombi and thence by the new Great North Road to Windsor or Parramatta.

Before the end of September 1832 Benjamin had obtained employment on a property situated near the Stonequarry (vicinity of Picton) possibly on Vanderville station .

It was on that property that he met Eliza Somers an assigned servant with whom he quickly fell in love.

Eliza Somers was born in Dublin in 1807 or 1808, the daughter of Timothy Kelly and Eliza or Elizabeth Somers. Her father and mother may have had what was then described as a common law marriage ∼ not legally married but living permanently together. She usually used the surname Somers ∼ on occasions she used Kelly. All her early records show the Christian name as Eliza only but late in life she certainly used Elizabeth.

Her childhood and young womanhood were spent among the poor of Dublin in bad tenements, often poorly fed and dressed in rags. She had contracted smallpox which left her marked. She was illiterate and had no trade.

She got into trouble in Dublin through stealing and was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment. On her release she was again involved in stealing, this time silk, and on June 2, 1829 the Dublin City Court sentenced her to be transported for seven years .

From Dublin she was sent to Cork, and there with many other female convicts, was placed aboard a regular convict transport the Asia which sailed for Sydney. Conditions on the ship would be similar to what have already been described relating to the Midas but except for the lack of space and the ship's movement may not have been much worse than the living conditions in Dublin.

The Asia arrived in Port Jackson on 13th January, 1830 and the same procedure as has already been related in respect of Benjamin was followed.

After being lodged in the Convict Barracks Eliza was on 26th January, 1831 assigned as a domestic servant to Rueben Chapman, an ironmonger of Pitt Street, Sydney.

According to her invoice she was 5 feet 3 inches (159cm) tall, pock-marked, of ruddy complexion and freckled. Her hair was brown, her eyes hazel.

Not long after her arrival and the commencement of her assignment she met and became friendly with a convict named Thomas Wade who had come from Dublin and had arrived in New South Wales on March 26, 1829. She became pregnant to him but as both were in the early part of their respective sentences marriage was out of the question. In any case wade disappeared from her life soon after she discovered she was pregnant.

Her master kept her in her assignment and on April 24, 1831 she gave birth to a boy whom she had christened at St. Mary's Sydney on May 6 as Thomas Wade. It also appears that when she went to hospital to have the child her master paid the hospital fees of one shilling per day.

She kept the baby with her and continued in her assignment until on June 12, 1832 her master and his family leaving for Hobart, she was sent to the Female Factory at Parramatta.

The Female Factory was the institution which housed unassigned female convicts. It also contained a lying in hospital where not only the children of female convicts were born but the wives of freemen went for their confinement. In addition there was an orphanage for children who had lost their parents or children of female convicts who because of their age had been taken from their mothers when they were assigned.

Female convicts in the Factory were comprised in three classes. First were those awaiting assignment against whom nothing was alleged. They were required to work at a variety of tasks but were paid for their work. Second were those against whom offences were alleged. They also worked but at more menial tasks and were paid lesser wages. Their rations also were not as good as those in the first class. Thirdly were the persistent offenders whose labour was harsh and unpaid and rations were the poorest.

Eliza was included in the first class and kept her baby with her. After a short time she was reassigned, this time to William Panton of Stonequarry. Mr Panton was a small farmer and was possibly a tenant farmer of Vanderville. It seems that she took her baby with her .

Her first meeting with Benjamin appears to have occurred very soon after his arrival in the district. He and she appear to have fallen in love with each other and she was soon pregnant to him.

It is possible that they discussed marriage but the difficulty was that while Benjamin was free Eliza was not and she had not yet served her sentence for a sufficient time to become eligible for a ticket of leave. Consequently permission to marry could in her case only be obtained from the Governor of the Colony, a matter of some difficulty.

In May 1833 Eliza absconded from Mr Penton's farm , probably going to where Benjamin was. He persuaded her that she should report back to the Female Factory and perhaps assisted in getting her there.

She returned to the Factory where early in July she gave birth to a daughter whom she named Mary. She remained there with her two children Tommy and Mary in the first class and was not penalised for her absconding, until she was assigned to W.G. Barker of Botany Road which appears to have taken place in August.

While she took Mary with her on this assignment Tommy was left at the Orphanage of the Factory. This assignment separated her from Benjamin by a considerable distance but they continued to meet and by the end of August she was again pregnant to him.

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